Are There Any UPP Changes in Women with Stress Urinary Incontinence after Pelvic Floor Muscle Exercises?

Abstract

Aim: This study examined the effect of pelvic floor muscle exercises after 12 months of successful treatment for stress urinary incontinence based on subjective (incontinence episodes and pad test) and objective outcome variables (urethral closure pressure, UCP, functional profile length and pressure transmission ratio, PTR). Methods: Fifty women aged 24–58 years old with genuine stress urine incontinence who successfully underwent pelvic floor muscle exercises, as measured by incontinence episodes and pad test, were included in the study. All women underwent a comprehensive standardized evaluation of urethral pressure profilometry at baseline assessment and at the end of 12 months of pelvic floor exercise program. Maximal UCP, mean UCP, functional profile length or PTR were recorded in all patients. Results: At baseline, the study population had a mean maximal UCP of 33 ± 20 cm H₂O, a mean UCP of 18 ± 10 cm H₂O, a mean functional urethral length of 22 ± 5 mm and a mean PTR of 81 ± 12%. At the end of 12 months of successful and continuous pelvic floor exercises and a significant improvement of incontinence episodes, no difference could be recorded concerning urethroprofilometry parameters studied apart from mean PTR, which was significantly increased. Conclusions: The results of this study indicate that apart from the mean PTR no other urodynamic parameter reflected the continence improvement of pelvic floor exercise program.

Influence of voluntary pelvic floor muscle contraction and pelvic floor muscle training on urethral closure pressures: a systematic literature review

“…Two studies assessed UPP with the patient in the standing position [17,23], but the majority was performed supine. In six studies, the bladder was empty [18,21,22,31,34,36]. In contrast, Amaro et al [28] obtained their findings with the bladder full.…”

“…Twenty-one studies investigating augmented MUCP were found (Table 1) [14,[17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35][36]. One study was excluded because the results combined values for men and women [37].…”

“…Nine clinical trials reporting UPP as an outcome of PFMT were published between 1987 and 2008 (Table 2) [19,20,26,29,34,[39][40][41][42]. Three were RCTs [26,39,40], one was a nonrandomized controlled trial [20], and five were pre-and posttest designs [19,29,34,41,42].…”

“…Three were RCTs [26,39,40], one was a nonrandomized controlled trial [20], and five were pre-and posttest designs [19,29,34,41,42]. The number of participants ranged from 26 to 204 [19,26] and participant age ranged from 19 to 79 years [20].…”

“…The number of participants ranged from 26 to 204 [19,26] and participant age ranged from 19 to 79 years [20]. The majority of trials investigated patients with urodynamic SUI [19,20,34,39,40,42]. The remaining studies assessed patients with a range of diagnoses [26,29,41].…”